Offsetting Cancer’s Stress with Dance Scholarships

Cancer impacts the lives of the sufferer’s entire family. If a parent faces frequent treatments, appointments and hospital stays, there isn’t much money leftover for children’s extracurriculars—like dance class. One studio in Salt Lake City strives to make it a little easier for families battling cancer to keep kids dancing.

At Artistic Endeavors Dance, owner Kim Luke offers free lifetime tuition to dancers who have a family member with cancer. That way, dancers or those interested in starting classes can train without further straining their family’s finances. Luke has awarded nine scholarships so far and even provided some students’ ballet and tap shoes.

Having lost her own father to cancer shortly after opening her studio, Luke told TheSalt Lake Tribune the scholarships are in his memory. “My dad gave me $1,000 to start this business,” she said. “He died a year later and never got to see that I have 300 students.”